just hit some news about a new PDA and since I didn't found much about it here on the forum I like to post about it.First of all the good news. AFAIK, compared to many other good prototypes and ideas we saw the last years on different tradeshows or read about it on articles this one will really be available in Europe within this year.At least in Germany, T-Mobile will sell them as T-Mobile Ameo [1].

The bad news, the initial OS will be MS Windows based, but hey bigger problems was solved here already.

I just like to post the specs (which I just copy from [2]) here for all the crazy hacking people out here. I guess many people from the PocketPenguin forum will like it .Many of the specs which are heavily discussed in the PocketPenguin forum already.

Digital camera, GPS, VGA-out, TV-out, GSM, WIFI, Bluetooth, etc.

Thus, the question is will there be a Linux-based OS ....I guess yes

the Intel Bulverde processor is Linux friendly already [3].and this from [4] shows that the umts-chip Qualcomm MSM 6275 is recognized at least by Gentoo.

I think we already started a thread about this (but it was quite possibly not clearly named if memory serves correct).

However, this is the first time I've seen the specifications, so that's quite interesting.

Hopefully enough of the chipset will be known (HTC seem to reuse a lot of their technology in producing their 101 variations on windows mobile devices) in order to get linux up and running quickly.

If predictions are correct, this will be an expensive device, rivalling the OQO or UMPC such as the Sony UX150/180 series.

I think a Nokia N800 and a tailored keyboard would be much cheaper combo than the HTC 7500... but not quite as well integrated, it'd also run linux out of the box with reasonable vendor support for drivers etc!

thanks for that info, it should hawever bee in the other thread but the PPP stuff is intruiging.

wlan, g-shock and making calls however will be the bggest problems but the xda dev guys have the radio part covered at least

ati card may be a problem but gps should just work, once its worked out how it was wired (i bet the seriel part )

camera may be a problem, it depends if there is a video for linux driver for the intel camera interface and the ati one (as there are 2 cameras)

sound and bluetooth should work as i bet its a standard chipset htc uses, leds might need a driver as they are normally connected to the gpios or the ati card

only thing that may be difficult is if there is an asic or cpld in there we havent encountered before but i bet its bassed off the htc tytn (hermes) as it has all the same features (apart from gps but there are roumors that its just been disabled and will be activated by new firmware in a couple of months) and chipsets

only bad thing is the audio via usb plug, its a PITA, as you cant charge and listen to music and unless this thing has 2 sockets i bet you cant have an external drive attached at the same time

Keyboard on this looks like the one on the Samsung Nexio S160... for me was almost impossible to use while walking around... On the Z the heft is in the keyboard and you can thumb-type with the display open at an angle, on the HTC it's backwards...SNi

Also looks like you can change the angle with the keyboard, since the way the unit balances on the keyboard, changing the angle will disconnect the pins from the keyboard plate. That is not very convenient either. Making the unit sit on the kyboard at a single angle makes it more constricting.

Really, it just gets so difficult to get a good Zaurus replacement, that it would have been so much better in the first place if Sharp just upgraded he Zaurus for us users and others.